Hark, sir; he hallooes to know whether the water be deep." "Nothing like experience in this world," answered the other, "let him try." The young man, in the meanwhile, receiving no hint to the contrary, and taking the silence of those to whom he applied as an encouragement to proceed, entered the stream without farther hesitation than the delay necessary to take off his buskins.

The elder person, at the same moment, hallooed to him to beware, adding, in a lower tone, to his companion, "Mortdieu--gossip--you have made another mistake--this is not the Bohemian chatterer." But the intimation to the youth came too late.

He either did not hear or could not profit by it, being already in the deep stream.

To one less alert and practised in the exercise of swimming, death had been certain, for the brook was both deep and strong.
"By Saint Anne! but he is a proper youth," said the elder man.

"Run, gossip, and help your blunder, by giving him aid, if thou canst.